Jennifer Arcuri on why she hopes setting up in Grimsby will help 'shake off silly scandal' with Boris Johnson

Jennifer Arcuri is holding a four day training workshop in Grimsby in March (Image: Getty Images)

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The American entrepreneur who enjoyed a "very special" relationship with Boris Johnson has said she hopes her plans to set up in Grimsby will allow her to "shake off the silly scandal" and focus on her business.

Her firm, Hacker House, is working with Lincolnshire-based business The Armour Group, which is run by local Stuart Green. They hope to offer between 12 and 16 places for those aged 18 and above on the course, which will train local people in how to fend off cyber attacks.

Ms Arcuri, 34, hit the headlines last year when her close friendship with Mr Johnson, the Prime Minister, emerged.

In interviews she said she had a "very special relationship" with the PM while he was mayor of London and that he regularly visited her flat for "technology lessons". She has refused to say whether or not the pair had an affair.

Jennifer Arcuri with Boris Johnson at the Innotech conference which she organised in 2013

The spotlight fell on Mr Johnson when it emerged Ms Arcuri’s tech business received £126,000 in public money and she went on three foreign trade trips led by Mr Johnson when he was London mayor between 2008 and 2016.

She now wants to make headlines for different reasons, hoping to make Grimsby a trailblazer in plugging what she called the UK's "massive skills shortage" in cyber security.

Speaking to GrimsbyLive from Los Angeles, Ms Arcuri said: "I want to shake off this silly scandal stuff with Boris Johnson and focus on business again.

"We did take a huge hit. It's been brutal what the press has done to us. It is because of business partners that we have been able to gain back some of that legitimacy."

Ms Arcuri revealed her business ambitions for Grimsby in a letter to the Prime Minister's controversial political adviser Dominic Cummings, urging him to visit Grimsby and back the project.

"I would love to get the Prime Minister and his government up to check it out and to put substance behind the noise," she said.

Jennifer Arcuri has organised a cyber security training course in Grimsby and hopes to set up a permanent training centre in Market Rasen (Image: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

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Ms Arcuri said she chose Grimsby as a pilot for her training scheme, Hands-on Hacking, because there was "amazing talent" in the north.

"What I love about Grimsby is it is so unassuming. I love the people - they are what make the place," she said. "Why ignore a place like this when it can add nothing but value to the UK?"

She added: "If I can harness the business that we already have, I have no doubt that the rest of the UK will follow."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets a fish on his trip to Grimsby during the general election campaign (Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)

Asked whether she was concerned that her former ties to Mr Johnson would prevent Mr Cummings from taking up her offer, she said: "No: Those that know us and who have worked with us know how exponentially better we are at what we do.

"If Dominic doesn’t want to take me seriously, that’s his loss and ultimately a great loss for the UK. What I say is truth. Boris knows this. He will remember me telling him what I printed today and knows first hand how intelligent capable and visionary I am."

Calling the scandal "completely orchestrated", she continued: "I have spent the last two and a half years building our portal and only just got it launched when the scandal broke. It was a rough start but we are taking it step by step. Our clients and students continue to choose Hacker House and that’s what has kept us moving forward.

"Grimsby will not, not happen because of this scandal. It’s the people we partner with around the technical skills we endorse who will make this possible. And I hope that we can rebuild despite of what’s been said."

Jennifer Arcuri is holding a four day training workshop in Grimsby in March (Image: Getty Images)

The Armour Group's Mr Green, who is working with Ms Arcuri to deliver the project, said he was pleased Grimsby had been chosen to pilot the training course. "We're aware that Lincoln has had a lot of investment and it annoys me that there is untapped potential in Grimsby that is forgotten about.

"Our objective is to provide people with people with vocational training and employment to help prepare them for bigger and better things," he said, adding that a recruiter had been lined up to help position course members into intelligence jobs.

He said both he and Ms Arcuri, whom he has known "for years", both saw the opportunity in Grimsby.

"The amount of cases of cyber attacks and online grooming in Grimsby and Lincolnshire has been truly terrifying," he said. "We will be able to put something back into the community."

Tech Entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri says she hopes her Hacker House training project in Grimsby will 'shake off' the issue of her relationship with Boris Johnson (Image: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Mr Green described Ms Arcuri as an "effervescent character - dynamic, intelligent and articulate".

"Jennifer isn't the character that she as been portrayed as in the media," he said. "There is much more to her than that. It's unfortunate that this link [to Boris Johnson] has been established and the press have had a field day with it.

"But we can rise above that."

And he said those he hoped to train up were precisely the "misfits" Mr Cummings was looking for.

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"It's not about getting back at Boris, or anything like that - there is so much opportunity in Grimsby that can be tapped into, we just need to get it on the radar."

Applications for the Hands-On Hacking course are already open on the Hacker House website. Mr Green urged those keen to take up a place to submit their applications now, as a few slots had already been taken.